This book is 20 years old at the point of me reading it... WOW

The key message in these blinks:

To succeed in the modern economy, you have to create and spread compelling ideas, not just physical products and services. The most effective way to spread them is to turn them into ideaviruses. These allow you to bypass traditional advertising, which is no longer an effective approach to marketing. To unleash an ideavirus, you have to select the right hive, find the right sneezers, and make sure the idea of your product or service can be as smoothly transmitted as possible. 

What to read next:

Poke the Box, by Seth Godin

You’ve just learned about turning an idea into an ideavirus – but how do you develop a good idea for a product or service in the first place? You’ve surely heard the expression “think outside the box.” Well, Seth Godin has another suggestion: Go one step farther, and poke the box! 

To explain what he means by this, Godin tells the story of an electronic, box-shaped toy that his uncle invented for his cousin. It had various buttons on it, and depending on how you pressed them, you’d produce different combinations of light and sound. The point of it was to poke around and see what happens. And that’s precisely what you need to do to come up with an innovative idea!

To learn more about how to adopt this playful approach to idea development, check out our blinks to Poke the Box, by Seth Godin.

I went through a period of time many years ago where I voraciously read a lot of Seth Godin's books. It was interesting to read this now and see how dated the book is and how much I have grown away from some of Godin's ideas about marketing.

Compared to Free Prize Inside and Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus is not as remarkable. I guess that this risk belongs to anyone whose work is impressive.

Its sweet and to the point. Very outdated for anyone reading it in the last 10 years but still as affective and important.

Though a bit old still a very good and relevant read. It's about social or digital augmented word of mouth. Recommendable for anyone entrepreneur.

Re-reading marketing books and this is a good one to pick up again! A good reminder of viral ideas and how to spark that. Seth Godin is a no-nonsense writer and speaker getting to the point which makes his works even more valuable. Definitely recommend.

he gave the most important new word (that sounds edgier): "sneezer" - beyond influencer, but powerful seller of ideas - now you know you need sneezers to be successful, whether it's selling a widget or to get you a chance at the white house tix.

A helpful book explaining how marketing at a large random group of people (similar to a TV add) is ineffective, and instead you should target a specific group of people (as he calls a hive) who can spread your idea for you. The author explains in more detail the importance of finding the right hive, finding the right people to expose your idea to, figuring out what you want people to say about your idea, making the idea easily spreadable, and amazing your audience so they will keep it growing.

To summarize the author in his own words "Marketing by interrupting people isn't cost effective any more. You can't afford to seek out people and send them unwanted marketing messages, in large groups, and hope that some will send you money.

Instead, the future belongs to marketers who establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other. Ignite consumer networks and then get out of the way."

Love it!

Dalam buku The Ideavirus yang ia tulis, Seth Godin memaparkan pemikirannya bahwa ‘virus ide’ atau dari konsumen ke konsumen adalah penyebaran informasi yang paling efektif, yang dapat digunakan semua bisnis untuk dapat sukses tanpa harus berurusan lagi dengan cara pemasaran tradisional.

Nothing much to write about. Confusing to say the least. Tries to relate virus marketing to the sneezing and spreading. Same words but with very negative connotations. A book to sneeze past.

This book reads like a mash-up of unoriginal and at-times trite self-help for pushing your ideas into a profitable venture. There are too many references to Gladwell's "The Tipping Point" rather than thought provoking and insightful material. I would suggest just reading "The Tipping Point" and calling it a day.